ABSTRACT
Designers, architects and landscape architects who draw and record their travels in sketches have a special way of seeing the world. It is a methodology where images are engraved in their mind rather than on film. The photograph shows you reality as seen through the camera lens, while the sketch records the emotion and character of place as seen through the eyes and hands of the designer. To me the most beautiful places in the world are those that express this connection in a profoundly human way. My drawing technique when traveling is to sketch with black archival ink on the site into a sketch book, sized 6 × 8 inches, that has spiral binding where I clip in the pen, and then add watercolor later that evening in the hotel. I now have over thirty-five sketch books filled with colored drawings and a few that I left as black and white. As my wife Sharon and I travel around the world, the sketches are all of places that I think are exceptional and make a unique statement about their relationships between humans, animals, and environments. The sketches are all meant to illustrate a connection with the agricultural landscapes that I found interesting, meaningful and beautiful. I hope that the book will inspire people to think and explore the relationships between urban and rural in their own lives, and act to make innovative and creative connections happen.
